The trust responsible for selling and cleaning up former General Motors properties has reached an agreement to sell the shuttered GM plant near Shreveport, La., to a start-up carmaker that plans to hire 1,500 new workers.

An ultra-small carmaker called Elio Motors signed a deal to buy the former GM Shreveport Assembly and Stamping plant in Caddo Parish from the Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response (RACER) Trust.

The deal was heralded by Louisiana politicians as an economic victory for a community devastated by GM’s contraction. The state was expected to provide incentives for the project, but details were not immediately available.

RACER said Elio plans to use 1 million square feet of the 1.8 million-square-foot property to manufacture three-wheeled vehicles. Officials said production would start in mid-2014.

The company’s cars, which will have two wheels in the front, will get an average of more than 60 miles per gallon and will come with three airbags, according to the company.

“There were three driving factors in the purchase of the plant: The business-friendly economic environment; the quality of the local experienced workforce; and our unwavering commitment to build Elio vehicles in America, with American workers,” Elio CEO Paul Elio said in a statement. “We can’t wait to begin our journey in Louisiana.”

GM, which most recently made the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon at the plant, stopped making vehicles there in August. The company gave up the property in 2009 as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and then leased it back from the trust until it stopped production last year.

RACER declined to reveal details about the transaction but said it has now sold 25 former GM properties for $27 million.

The trust, which was assigned responsibility for 89 former GM properties in 14 states, is still trying to sell several high-profile sites like the Willow Run powertrain plant in Ypsilanti Township and the Buick City properties in Flint.